Brand strategy, creative direction, & design leadership, tailored to your needs

I work across the full length of a brand challenge, brand strategy, design leadership, and creative direction , for brands that need focus and standout results

Who it’s for

Strategic clarity, creative direction, and standout results you can count on.

Most teams do not need a full-time brand design lead or ongoing creative direction. They need the right one, right now.

I work with agencies and marketing teams in a fractional capacity, stepping in at senior level for pitches, rebrands, campaigns, and launches. No overhead, no onboarding lag. Just seventeen years of global experience, focused entirely on your brief and your team.

  • You need a senior creative lead for a pitch, a project, or a client that has outgrown your current capacity.

    I embed into the team, speak the language, and raise the work without disrupting the dynamic. I have led pitches and long-term client programmes for accounts including Reckitt, Nestle, Colgate-Palmolive, Carlsberg, Unilever, Diageo, and more. I know how agencies work because I grew up in one, so I can hit the ground running and fit in seamlessly.

  • You have the ambition but not always the senior creative resource to match it.

    I plug directly into your team, bringing strategic clarity and creative direction to launches, rebrands, campaigns, and brand governance challenges. I have run global brand design & experience for brand portfolios across 40+ markets, so multi-stakeholder, global-to-local complexity and complex matrixed organisations are familiar territory I am used to navigating.

What you get

Brand strategy, creative direction, & design leadership, tailored to your needs.

Areas of expertise::

01

The foundation every brand is built on; the thinking that shapes everything that comes after it.

    • Brand audit & competitive analysis

    • Brand positioning & architecture

    • Portfolio strategy & management

    • Visual identity & brand systems

    • Packaging innovation & format strategy

02

Building the infrastructure that lets great brand thinking scale without losing what made it great

    • Brand governance & design standards

    • Toolkits, playbooks & guidelines

    • Workshop facilitation & team alignment

    • Agency management & stakeholder alignment

    • Design capability building & team leadership

03

Where strategy becomes something tangible; something people can see, hold, & respond to.

    • Creative direction

    • Experience mapping & consumer journey strategy

    • Digital brand strategy & ecommerce experience

    • Packaging strategy & creative direction

    • Brand activation frameworks

No handoffs, no gaps, no loss of vision between brief & delivery. Just focused senior expertise, exactly where & when you need it.

Why it works

Familiarity is the enemy of distinctiveness.

Most teams already have agencies they trust and partners they rely on. What they occasionally need is someone who can step in at senior level, think independently, and contribute without disrupting what is already working.

That is the gap I fill. Not a replacement, just an extra pair of very experienced hands exactly when the moment calls for it. Fresh independent thinking and deep specialist expertise in the areas that are hard to resource quickly.

The result is sharper thinking, momentum, stronger output, and a fresh perspective that stays with the team and compounds.

  • Her briefs are clear, the challenge is articulated well, her in-depth understanding of the brands and categories she works with is incredible, and having her critical eye across the work has pushed us to do better work and create great outcomes

    Asiya Hasan-Damen, Client Director, Marks — 12-year professional relationship

  • Ainhoa leads projects with a holistic vision that is genuinely rare. She is creative, strategic, and a skilled designer, all at once. She makes projects reach their full potential because she sees the complete picture while never losing the detail. What makes her exceptional as a leader is that she creates real space for the team around her. She listens, gives honest feedback, shares knowledge generously, and brings people in rather than shutting ideas down.

    Ane Maguregui Senior Designer 10-year professional collaboration

  • Ainhoa was my second-in-command across all of our projects and clients at Design Bridge, and it became clear very quickly that she was a natural leader. She mentored younger designers, inspiring them to bring their work to the next level, and was highly respected throughout the business for her strong work ethic, consummate professionalism, and true passion for her craft. Her ability to remain calm and pragmatic under the most stressful situations, and in front of highly demanding clients, made her one of the most valuable members of our team. She has real gravitas and presence that is undoubtedly what allowed her to grow so quickly

    Jason Kempen Executive Creative Director, Bulletproof

Let’s connect

Every brand challenge is different.

Whether you need a sharper positioning, stronger creative direction, or someone to lead and deliver end-to-end, I'd love to hear what you're working on. Tell me about your challenge and let's figure out the best way forward together.

Plan a discovery call
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